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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
CUP: Martin Earns Hard-Fought Second Place
A runner-up finish in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard moved Mark Martin to ninth in points...
Tom Jensen  |  Posted July 26, 2009   Speedway, IN
A runner-up finish in the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard moved Mark Martin to ninth in points. (Photo: Getty Images)
Mark Martin minced no words and made no apologies about his second-place finish in Sunday’s Allstate 400 at the Brickyard.

“I got beat by Superman,” Martin shrugged after finishing second to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate and three-time defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson. “ … His cape don't get tangled around his neck much. He gets ‘er done.”

Martin, who started from the pole at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, ran second to Juan Pablo Montoya for most of the first 125 laps. But after Montoya was caught speeding during a green-flag pit stop on Lap 126, Martin inherited what would prove to be a short-lived lead.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. blew a motor on Lap 128, bringing out a yellow that lasted until Lap 136, as the IMS crew worked to get all of Earnhardt’s oil off the track. When the track went green on Lap 137, Martin was on the inside lane and Johnson on the outside. And the outside lane proved to be the way to go, allowing Johnson to take the lead on the restart and hold it for the final 24 laps to win his third Brickyard in the last four years.

Martin gave it all he had, but it was not to be. At the drop of the checkered, Johnson beat Martin to the start-finish line by 0.400 seconds.

“I was beating Jimmie pretty bad off of Turn 2,” said Martin. “I knew that for the last 15 laps for sure. But he was beating me pretty bad off of (Turn) 4. I was gonna have to make it happen off of 2. I made some great runs. But I really thought several of the times I was gonna hit the wall over there. I absolutely could not go any faster. In fact, I can't believe I didn't. The third to the last lap, the last lap both, I went through there beyond my good judgment to get those runs. It just wasn't enough.”

And while Martin may have been disappointed to finish second, he said he was thrilled to be in the fight, and thrilled to have won four races this season already, a sum equal to the total of four victories he posted from 2000-‘08.

It also helped Martin’s chances at qualifying for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. The runner-up finish moved Martin to ninth in points, with a margin of 110 points over 13th place.

“You can say what you want, but I've had some days this year,” Martin said when a reporter suggested he’d come up short in the race. “That's not the way to approach me. It's been my day this year, all year. I'd love to have won the race. But I'm very grateful to have had a chance at it. I got beat. I didn't get ‘er done. But I gave it my heart. So did my race team. I'm grateful for it. It's better than 42nd, man.”




Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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